Chapter 1: Old Worlds and New

COURSE SNAPSHOT

  • Course format: no midterm; final at-home is worth 10 ext{%}; weekly chapter quizzes worth 60 ext{%}; Write-to-Learn assignments worth 20 ext{%}; attendance/class participation worth 10 ext{%}.
  • Textbook: "Give Me Liberty" (Foner et al.), 7th edition, Vol. 1.
  • Primary sources analyzed in class.

WHY STUDY EARLY AMERICAN HISTORY

  • Interesting questions about ideals vs. reality (e.g., all men are created equal vs. slavery).
  • Some abolition in the North, but abolition faced practical/political obstacles; debates continue over time.
  • Events and decisions long ago continue to shape present-day politics, institutions, and social structures.

COURSE THEMES

1) How much has America upheld its ideals (liberty, equality, opportunity) while facing slavery, displacement of Native peoples, and discrimination?
2) Is American history best understood as steady expansion of liberty, or cycles of progress and reaction?
3) Is American government best understood as a republic, a democracy, or something else?
4) Were key decisions (slavery, westward expansion, etc.) driven more by political principles or economic/technological realities?
5) Was history inevitable (progress with tensions) or were there moments when different choices might have changed outcomes?

CHAPTER 1: SETTING THE STAGE FOR ENGLISH SETTLEMENT

  • OLD VIEW vs NEW VIEW: Atlantic history emphasizes contact among three civilizations—Europe, Native America, West Africa.
  • ENGLISH SETTLEMENT: arrives late; major colonization occurs in the 1600s; the European presence in the New World is uneven and economically mixed.
  • ATLANTIC WORLD CONTEXT: Spanish empire dominates early colonization; later British, French, Dutch competition expands.
  • WEST AFRICA: diverse languages and kingdoms; kinship-based societies; involvement in long-distance trade (including Islam-influenced networks); slavery exists, but is not strictly race-based or hereditary in all contexts.
  • ECONOMICS OF LAND: land was often a shared or communal resource in many Native and African contexts; private property concepts differ from Europe.

THE OLD WAY vs. THE ATLANTIC POCUS (ECONOMICS OF SETTLEMENT)

  • 1200s–1250s: Medieval Warm Period with longer growing seasons; Cahokia as a major pre-contact city in North America; land rights and farming differed from European norms.
  • 1634 Cahokia site and Indigenous settlements illustrate diverse political and social orders prior to European arrival.

WEST AFRICA, TRADE, AND SLAVERY BEFORE LARGE-SCALE TRANSATLANTIC SLAVERY

  • West Africa featured dozens of languages and city-states; trade centered on kinship networks and long-distance exchanges (Gold, Salt, Slaves).
  • Slavery existed in West Africa, generally tied to war, debt, or punishment; not inherently hereditary, and enslaved people could sometimes gain freedom or integrate into communities.

PORTUGAL, WEST AFRICA, AND THE AGE OF EXPANSION

  • Caravel innovations enable longer voyages; Prince Henry the Navigator champions Atlantic exploration (late 1400s).
  • Early Portuguese activities establish coastal forts/factories and trade networks with West Africa, laying groundwork for the Atlantic slave trade.

COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE

  • Transfer of crops, animals, diseases between the Old World and the Americas.
  • New World crops (corn, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers) transform diets globally; Old World crops and animals (wheat, rice, sugarcane, horses, cattle) revolutionize American landscapes.
  • Disease devastates Native populations and shapes conquest and settlement patterns.

COLUMBUS AND EUROPEAN EXPLORATION (1492–1504)

  • 1492–1493: Columbus’ first voyage; lands in the Bahamian islands; encounters with Indigenous peoples.
  • 1493–1496, 1502–1504: subsequent voyages; Vespucci’s reports help Europeans realize the Americas are a separate continent; printing press accelerates dissemination of news about the Americas.

SPANISH EMPIRE, ENCOMIENDAS, AND REFORM

  • CONQUISTADORES seek wealth, empire, and religious conversion; Cortés conquers the Aztec, Pizarro conquers the Incas.
  • ENCOMIENDA: grant to Spanish settlers of Indigenous labor in return for Christianizing them; horrific labor conditions and high mortality.
  • LAS CASAS: Dominican priest who denounces Indian slavery and calls for reforms; 1542 Nueva Leyes begins to curb encomienda abuses.
  • REPARTIMIENTO: later labor system replacing encomienda; expands use of Indigenous labor under new rules (but still exploitative).

AFTERMATH OF ENCOMIENDAS: SLAVERY IN THE ATLANTIC WORLD

  • Indigenous slavery declines due to reforms and high mortality; African slavery expands as an alternative labor source for European colonies.
  • Debates and policy shifts persist about the treatment and status of Indigenous peoples and Africans in the colonies.

EUROPEAN COLONIZATION PATTERNS IN THE AMERICAS

  • FRANCE: focus on Canada and fur trade; alliances with certain Native groups; Catholic missions among Indigenous peoples.
  • NETHERLANDS: New Amsterdam (lower Manhattan) becomes a major trading hub; early practice includes religious tolerance and relatively greater legal rights for women.
  • ENGLAND: English settlements grow along the Atlantic coast; tension with Dutch, French; competition for land and resources.
  • NATIVE-ENCOUNTERS: Indigenous groups engage with Europeans as strategic partners or adversaries; exchange of gifts and captives occurs across cultures.

KEY TERMS TO KNOW

  • Columbian Exchange: extTransfersofcrops,animals,anddiseasesbetweentheOldandNewWorldsext{Transfers of crops, animals, and diseases between the Old and New Worlds}
  • Encomienda: grant giving labor to settlers in exchange for Christianizing Indigenous peoples
  • Repartimiento: later labor system replacing encomienda with fixed labor quotas
  • Joint-stock company: early model for funding long-distance ventures
  • Half-freedom: Dutch colonial arrangement granting some freedoms to enslaved people and their offspring
  • Coverture: legal doctrine in which a married woman loses separate legal identity

TAKEAWAY POINTS FOR EXAM PREP

  • The Columbian Exchange created profound ecological and demographic shifts in both the Old and New Worlds.
  • European colonial systems varied by empire, with Spain pursuing centralized, extractive labor models (encomiendas, repartimiento) and other powers experimenting with different forms of governance and labor.
  • Slavery in the Atlantic world emerged through a mix of indigenous labor practices, African slave labor, and evolving legal frameworks; race-based chattel slavery becomes more entrenched later in the colonial period.
  • The Atlantic world was not a single story but a set of interconnected frontiers where European powers, Indigenous peoples, and West African societies negotiated power, trade, religion, and culture.

DATES TO REMEMBER (SELECT)

  • Columbus voyages: 1492−1493,1493−1496,1498−1500,1502−15041492-1493, 1493-1496, 1498-1500, 1502-1504
  • Nueva Leyes reform: 15421542
  • 1500s Atlantic slave trade expansion begins in earnest; Spanish empire consolidates in Americas